Hollywood Lives Happily Ever After
Pregnancy flicks are so '07: Marriage movies like "Mamma Mia!" are big for '08.
June 26, 2008— -- Last year, the crowd-pleaser movies were about pregnant women —"Knocked Up" with Katherine Heigl — and pregnant teens, as in "Juno".
This year, Hollywood, that town famous for flash marriages and ugly breakups, is throwing rice (and divorce stats) to the winds and serving up a slew of films about weddings.
So what's that about? Industry observers say in a summer beset by rising food and gas prices and ongoing wars overseas, "Tinseltown" is returning to a tried-and-true formula: happily ever after equals wedding.
Who better to explain this movie phenomenon than a true romance expert. Antonia van der Meer, editor in chief of Modern Bride magazine, says people love love. "In general, people love to see other people happy, and we love seeing weddings in movies because it makes us happy."
Less romantic observers say it has a lot to do with the growing economic clout of female moviegoers. But more on that later.
Take some of the blockbusters of the summer. "Sex and the City?" Less about sex, more about a wedding. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?" Snakes, skulls, Soviet spies, and it all winds up at a wedding. "Mamma Mia!?" A kooky wedding in gorgeous Greece, set to ABBA songs, opening July 18. (The new twist in all these: The romantic protagonists are over 40, a reminder that it's not just the young who buy movie tickets.)
Other wedding-dominated romantic comedies, or rom-coms, are filling theaters this year: "27 Dresses", "Made of Honor" and "What Happens in Vegas". Coming up: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", "The Accidental Husband", "Rachel Getting Married", "The Proposal", "Bride Wars" and "When in Rome". Weddings are even in art-house films, such as the upcoming "The Stone Angel".
What gives? Well, the bottom line, of course. And gauzy romance, naturally. A bit of mythology, some literary history and heaping helpings of psychology.
It's a party, unlike pregnancy
Let's start at the newsstands, groaning with the 10-pound bridal magazines likely to reap some profits from Hollywood's marital bliss. It's a two-way street: The audience influences the movies, the movies influence the audience. Van der Meer says brides are so impressed by what they see at the movies that she predicts "Mamma Mia!" will send scores to the Greek islands next year for destination weddings.
Related Stories
ABC News Live